Sunday, May 5th, 2013
The release of the new book The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime by University of Pennsylvania neurocriminologist Adrian Raine has sparked a wave of media coverage of issues at the heart of ponerology.
Our last post focused on Raine’s essay “The Criminal Mind,” featured in the April 27, 2013 Wall Street Journal, in which he discussed how advances in our understanding of the genetic, neurological and environmental bases of violence are influencing our view of and approach to crime.
Now another large media outlet, CNN, has run not one, but two segments featuring Raine’s work. (more…)
Tags: adrian raine, amygdala, boston marathon bombings, boxing, brain tumors, cavum septum pellucidum, cnn, fetal alcohol syndrome, frontal lobes, jake tapper, limbic system, neurocriminology, neuroscience, psychopathy, rocky, sanjay gupta, septum pellucidum, the anatomy of violence, the lead with jake tapper, tsarnaev brothers, violence
Posted in Books, Crime, Television News | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
One of the most challenging and important questions in ponerology is whether conditions associated with reduced empathy and conscience, and thus with increased likelihood of harmful malicious and neglectful activity, are caused by nature (genes, biology, etc.) or nurture (environment, upbringing, etc.)
Most who work in the fields that study aspects of this question take the view that the answer involves some combination of the two.
But this still leaves us with another question. In what proportion do each of these factors contribute in which people?
One remarkable case offers some fascinating insight on the subject.
Dr. James Fallon
James Fallon, Ph.D. is a highly decorated neuroscientist and Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Neurobiology at University of California, Irvine. Dr. Fallon has several areas of expertise. One is adult stem cells. Another is psychiatry. Specifically, he is interested in the relationships between brain imaging (he has served as Director of UC Irvine’s Human Brain Imaging Center), genetics and various psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia, depression and addictions.
An Extraordinary Experiment
Aware of his specialties, for many years, Fallon’s colleagues have sent him brain images they wished to have him analyze.
At one point this interchange took the form of an experiment.
Colleagues sent him 70 MRI scans of brains belonging to people ranging from healthy to mentally ill. Included in the batch were scans of brains belonging to killers, including some notorious ones. But Fallon had no idea which scanned brain belonged to whom.
Nonetheless, he was able to identify differences in five of the scans so dramatic that he could recognize them as the markers of psychopathy. And it turned out that he was correct. The five scans on which he zeroed in actually were those from the brains of psychopathic serial killers. (more…)
Tags: abuse, adrian raine, aggression, amygdala, anterior temporal cortex, biology, brain, brain imaging, child abuse, childhood, conflict, conscience, criminal minds, eeg, emotions, empathy, environment, ethics, free will, gender, genetics, horizon, impulsivity, james fallon, killed strangely, killers, legal system, libertarian, limbic system, lizzie borden, love, maoa, mating, mirror neurons, mri, neurobiology, neuroscience, nurturing, orbital cortex, pet scan, phenylketonuria, pku, psychiatry, psychopathy, rebecca cornell, risk taking, screening, serial killers, serotonin, sex-linked, superficial charm, ted, thomas cornell, transgenerational violence, trauma, university of california irvine, violence, warrior gene, x chromosome
Posted in Personal Profiles, Research, Television Shows | 1 Comment »
